I Earned My Cookie Badge! Homemade Samoas.

Homemade Samoas- for those dark times when you have no Girl Scout cookies left.

It's that time of year again. That time when you have to make some extremely important decisions. You are going to make one of the most important financial transactions of the year. Yes, it is tax time, but that's totally not what I'm talking about. It's Girl Scout Cookie Season. That wonderful time of the year when you have to make the hard choice between Thin Mints and Trefoils, Samoas and Tag-a-longs. I know that I, personally, can support an entire county's worth of troops with my Thin Mint purchases. Boxes keep in the freezer for a long time, but usually they only last about a week in my house.

So what does one do when you are out of cookies and there are no Girl Scouts to be found? Don't panic! Apocalypse averted! I found several recipes online for these cookies, and I actually found that my Samoas are just as good (dare I say, better?) than the ones you can buy from that nice girl outside the grocery store. I modified my recipe from Instructables. (Just want to take a moment and congratulate this girl (link) for her ingenuity. I bet she outsells her entire troop. Young capitalist for the win.)

Samoas are the coconut caramel chocolate cookies. I am not a huge coconut person, but I really love these. They are my husband's favorite. The cookie base is really just shortbread, the same shortbread that is used for Trefoils. This recipe makes WAY more shortbread than you need for the samoas, but you can use it for just plain shortbread cookies if you like when you run out of coconut caramel mix.

A word on the use of caramels. For some reason, Safeway stopped selling baking caramels, which wounds

Seriously Safeway, why?

my soul. I loved those things. So convenient, and way easier to unwrap than the other ones. For this recipe, I used two bags (about 11 oz total) of Werther's soft caramels. Any type of soft caramel will do, just add more or less milk to get a soft and spreadable consistency. You don't want it to be too soft or it will just run off the cookie. It can be pretty difficulty to goop the coconut-caramel mixture onto the cookie with any type of utensil, so I went caveman and just used my hands. It was messy, but it ended up working out pretty well. It may not seem like the caramel is sticking at first, but let it sit for a few minutes and it will adhere to the cookie pretty well.

Ready to fix your cookie-cravings!

Homemade Samoa Cookies
1 cup butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour (plus more for rolling)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbl milk

2 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
12 oz (approximately) soft caramel candies
1 1/2 tbl milk
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

Cream together sugar and butter. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to the butter mixture. Slowly add vanilla and milk. Form dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or until firm and not sticky.

Yeah...it's messy.

While dough is cooling, spread coconut thinly on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 deg F, stirring frequently, until coconut is browned, about 10 min. Unwrap caramel candies and place in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1 tbl of milk and microwave in 10 second increments, stirring in between, until caramels are melted and milk is incorporated. Add more milk if it seems like the caramel is too stiff. Combine coconut and melted caramel in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.

Once dough is cooled, take out one ball, leaving the other in the fridge. Roll out the ball on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin until dough is approximately 1/4 in thick. Cut into donut shape and place on a greased baking sheet. Collect scraps and roll out again to make more cookies. Refrigerate the dough if it starts to get sticky. Repeat with other ball of dough. Bake cookies for 10 min at 350 deg F, or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 min on a wire cookie rack.

Just need to set up a bit and they are ready to go!

Place cooled cookies on parchment paper, tin foil, waxed paper, or other non-stick surface. Spread
coconut-caramel mixture onto cookies. Let set for 15 min. Heat chocolate chips in the microwave in 10 second increments until melted. Dip cookie bottoms into melted chocolate, or use a fork to spread chocolate onto the bottoms. Set on a non-stick surface. Drizzle tops of cookies with remaining chocolate. Put in the freezer for 1 hour to set. Store in an air-tight container in a cool place. Enjoy!